Asus Zenfone 8 is compact flagship with an Snapdragon 888 chip

Asus Zenfone 8 The Asus Zenfone 8 measures 148x68.5x8.9 mm and weighs 169g. Powered by the Snapdragon 888 chipset, which runs Android 11 with ZenUI 8 which different than last year ZenFone with near stock android. The flagship has a 5.9” AMOLED display (Samsung E4) with 1080p resolution and a 20:9 aspect ratio. In terms of protection, the phone has Gorilla Glass Victus on the front and an IP68 dust and water resistance rating and this is Asus’ first phone with an IP rating.

The panel has 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate. It is HDR10+ certified, covers 112% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and comes with well-calibrated colors. It’s quite bright too, with a peak of 1,100 nits. The fingerprint reader is built into the display. On the back there is a dual camera with a 64MP sensor – the same IMX686 as used on the Zenfone 7 generation. It has 0.8µm pixels and a Quad Bayer filter an Dual Pixel Autofocus. This camera features Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and can record 8K video at 24fps (with EIS enabled). 4K/60 fps is also available as is 1080p/60 fps with HyperSteady. The triple mic system features OZO Audio Zoom and Noise reduction tech.

The second camera on the back is based on 12MP IMX363 sensor (1/2.55”. It has 1.4µm pixels Dual Pixel autofocus and its lens (with 14.3mm focal length) can focus at 4cm distance to shoot macro photos. The selfie camera on the front uses the new 12MP IMX663 imager (1/2.93”, 1.22µm), also with Dual Pixel AF. Both the ultrawide and the selfie cameras can record 4K video (at 60fps and 30fps, respectively). Asus equipped the little Zenfone 8 with some serious audio hardware. It has a 3.5mm audio jack, two linear speakers with dual Cirrus Logic mono amps (CS35L45) and Dirac HD Sound support. The Audio Wizard app will let you tinker with the equalizer.

The USB-C port supports 30W HyperCharge for fast and safe charging (Quick Charge 4.0 and USB Power Delivery PPS). The port is wired for only USB 2.0 connectivity, however. On the wireless front things are much better. There’s 5G with multiple bands supported (there is a USA and a worldwide version of the phone). The latest Wi-Fi 6E is supported as is Bluetooth 5.2 (with aptX Adaptive). The phone has a dual nano-SIM slot, but unfortunately no microSD slot. Asus offers the phone with 128GB and 256GB storage, with three RAM options – 6GB, 8GB and even 16GB. There’s a Smart Key on the side which can be configured to trigger three different actions.

The Asus Zenfone 8 is already available in Europe and Taiwan (the Black one at least, the Silver one is on pre-order). The early-bird price is €600, but it will go up to €670 at the end of the month. The phone will be available in other regions too, more details soon.

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Zenfone 8 will become official on May 12

 

ASUS has today announced their new next flagship Zenfone 8. The unveiling event will take place on May 12 at 1 PM Eastern / 7 PM CET most likely via a virtual launch event. There must be two variant Zenfone 8 and a pricier Zenfone 8 Pro model. But lately, we’ve been hearing a lot of chatter about a compact device that will likely debut as the Zenfone 8 Mini. The Taiwanese company says we should expect something that's "big on performance", and "compact in size". Regarding the former, the implication is obvious - expect a Snapdragon 888.

Back in February, DigiTimes reported that ASUS will launch a Zenfone Mini later this year. The report mentioned that ASUS won’t make any compromises for its compact phone when it comes to the internal hardware, following a strategy similar to what Apple did with the iPhone 12 Mini. Alleged Geekbench listing suggests that the ASUS Zenfone 8 Mini will draw power from the Snapdragon 888 SoC paired with up to 16 gigs of RAM. Rumors also point towards a 5.92-inch OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and support for 30W fast charging.

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